As D.C. considers how to redevelop the RFK Stadium site, some who live near the long-vacant stadium are making it clear they don’t want another stadium in its place. Their opposition comes as many Washington Commanders fans hope the team will eventually return to the site.
“The community is very concerned,” said Ebony Payne, an ANC commissioner in Ward 7 who represents the area including the RFK campus.
“There’s concern that you really can’t do it all — that you can’t have all of the parking that a football stadium needs to satisfy the fans and also deliver on all of the amenities that the community is looking for,” Payne said.
Many residents, according to Payne, would rather see the area used for housing and green space, possibly expanding The Fields at RFK Campus, a 27-acre outdoor sports complex featuring athletic fields for soccer, baseball and other sports.
Community opposition to a new stadium isn’t new.
In 2023, a coalition of Ward 7 residents commissioned a survey of more than 2,000 people, with 67% of respondents opposing a new football stadium at the site.
With the Commanders coming off an impressive season, Payne wondered whether that might shift public sentiment.
So far, she said, it has not.
“I was curious whether that would shift public opinion, and I have found in the meetings that I’ve attended that they really haven’t shifted,” Payne said, calling RFK’s future as “the most galvanizing issue” for her community.
“There’s a host of other amenities that the community is wanting,” Payne said. “We need to make sure that whatever is built there in the future is going to serve the people that actually live here.”
Last week, the D.C. Council voted to approve the transfer of the RFK Stadium site — owned by the federal government — to the city’s control, affirming legislation passed by Congress in December that granted D.C. authority over the land.
The council, which has the final say on development plans, has not committed to building a stadium.
RFK Stadium, which has sat unused for years in the heart of the District, is currently being demolished. The stadium last hosted Washington’s NFL team in 1996, and D.C. United played its final game there in 2017.
The discussion over RFK’s redevelopment was set to continue Thursday evening, as Mayor Muriel Bowser, D.C. Council member Wendell Felder and Ward 7 residents were scheduled to meet at Eastern High School.
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